"Aunt Carol" by Mista Cookie Jar

I've got kids, so I've got kid CDs, and they're not really so bad as you might think--I came late to the game, never had Barney or Raffi, straight into Ralph's World and Laurie Berkner. And there are definitely songs that make me happy from a disability perspective. But this one just came across my desk, by a friend-of-friends, and it's not like anything else I've run into:



Visual description: Mista Cookie Jar, the singer, is a young Asian-American man with long hair and a mustache; he's wearing a hat and floral shirt. The video shows a birthday party for Carol Ware, an older white woman who uses a power chair. There are a lot of children and other older folks too, and there are scenes of the singer doing Carol's nails, marveling at her sunshine tattoo, and generally having a grand time.

The singer has posted all his lyrics online at his website (yeah!); find "Aunt Carol" in the lyrics menu (I can't seem to link to them directly, but they're there). (UPDATE: Katja put the direct link in comments.)

What I like here: Carol Ware is a real person, and the YouTube video label explains this. The singer has known her for years and this song is a genuine, specific tribute. He shares in the lyrics that she was a kindergarten teacher, that she likes Elvis, that she likes her coffee with Splenda, that she smokes (deal with it, she's an adult), that "we call her Aunt Carol, you can call her Ms. Ware," and that "she's a masterpiece from head to toe." All with a fun celebratory tone, and with Carol's participation and the participation of her fellow nursing-home residents. When so many kids live far from their older relatives and may not feel drawn to seniors, this song has a chance to change minds, and will definitely spark some smiles.

ETA: There's also a "making of the video" slideshow.

Another "hilarious" blind cartoon character ?!?!?

[Visual description: animation still; the human character is an African-American woman wearing a white headscarf, shawl, and dress, sunglasses, bracelet, ring, and large gold earrings; she's holding the head of a large snake in her hands, and smiling at it.]

Hoo-boy. Get ready for Mama Odie, the fairy godmother in Disney's new feature, "The Princess and the Frog." She's a 200-year-old swamp-dwelling seer and she's blind (get it? get it?). She has a "seeing-eye" snake. Yeah, that won't confuse any children about the work of service animals...

Definitely Severely Euphemized

[Image description: "Severely Euphemized" t-shirt from the Nth Degree.]

Proving once again that faith organizations can be among the most strenuous in bending inside out and sideways to avoid using the word "disability," I give you the Lutheran (ELCA) summer youth event for disabled teens.... the Definitely Abled Youth Leadership Event. Look around the page, see if you can find the word "disability," or "disabled," or "accessibility," or.... hoo-boy.

(The program may be fine for what it is, but you have to wonder about a program that won't even use the D word in its website.... )

Cerrie Burnell's Arm

The BBC recently introduced new presenters on their popular children's show, CBeebies: Alex Winters and Cerrie Burnell. They're pictured at left, in a publicity still. Both young, white, conventionally attractive, with big grins for the camera. They're dressed in kid-friendly purple and green sweaters, sitting on a comfy couch with satiny pillows. And Cerrie has a noticeably short arm, ending just below the elbow.

Well, that last detail of the picture is apparently a problem for some parents. They say her appearance is "unsuitable" for a children's show, that the sight of her will "scare" children, even to the point of giving them nightmares. Complaints have been filed. Message boards on the subject brim with panic and ignorance. And it is the parents' problem, not the kids' concern: as Lucy Mangan writes about physical difference in a Guardian editorial on the subject, "To a young child, it is just another element of a large and confusing world that they want to inquire about, no more fearsome or embarrassing than any other."

So, of course kids are going to ask, that's what they do--and they're going to take their cues from how their parents answer those questions. Not just the words, either, but the tone, the body language--I posted some tips here a few years ago.

And think about this--if you're telling your children this lovely young woman is too frightful to behold, what are you telling them more generally about beauty? about perfection? What kind of impossible box are you asking them to fit into, and stay inside, for your approval?

"Accessible" swingset

"Accessible" swingset
Originally uploaded by pennylrichardsca

This is the new swingset in my neighborhood. See the nice new blue accessible swings? Very nice, but... See how there's no wheelable way to GET to the two blue accessible swings? Sigh. So close.

Disability history is getting really popular with the kids...

"I wanted to be Helen Keller, but she got tooken by the very first kid!"
--my daughter Nell, after school today.

The third-graders at her school do a "Living Museum" every year, where they each dress in a costume and prepare a little talk about their historical figure. Then they each wear a "Press Here" paper button on their chests and stand along the walls of the cafeteria; the younger kids can come through and push the buttons to get the biographies recited. It's very cute. There's a standard list of names, the kids have to pick from it, one of each figure per room... and apparently HK was the first draft pick in Nell's room. I should find out when Louis Braille and Beethoven were picked up....

(Nell will be Mozart instead. That's fine, I can make some kind of a powdered wig in the next five weeks...)

Swing time

In the picture, my son and I at the dedication of a new accessible swing at a neighborhood park today... We like to show up for these things if we're available, because it's good for the city officials who approved the funds, and the park crew who will maintain the site, to see who will benefit. To see that it's not just window-dressing, that there are real kids who will enjoy the new equipment.

It's also the one and only day that you can assume the accessible swing will be in working order--in fact, this one had already needed a minor repair before the photo opportunities commenced. (Why do carers let kids mistreat playground equipment? It's not actually indestructible, and it's never inexpensive.)

Thanks again to the Hermosa Beach folks who worked for this swing (and who are working for further accessibility features in other parks), and to photographer Doris Beaman for the lovely picture she took.

Sensory Friendly Film Screenings

Got this email through a local group:

Subject: Autism Society of America and AMC Entertainment to Host Films

AMC Entertainment (AMC) and ASA have teamed up to begin testing a pilot program to bring families affected by autism and other disabilities a special opportunity to enjoy their favorite films in a safe and accepting environment on a monthly basis.

"Sensory Friendly Films" premiered across the country last August, and are continuing with a special showing of the new film Bolt for December.

For these movies the lights are up a little, the sound is down, there is no "silence is golden" rule, and people can bring in special dietary snacks.

An interesting experiment, similar to Parent Movie Mornings at some theatres on weekday mornings, where babies are welcome instead of frowned upon, secure stroller parking is offered, and the volume is down. And no doubt any such realistic accommodations are a godsend for many families.

But once again, the sensory-friendly screenings are targeting families and showing kid movies at this pilot stage, rather than imagining there are adults who might also like to "enjoy their favorite films in a safe and accepting environment" that includes lower volume and BYO snacks. These conditions don't have to be "special" or just for children--they might be appreciated by a much wider audience if the option were offered.

Ugh.

[Visual description: cover of the Wii game, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party; cartoon bunny-like creatures with wide-open mouths, unmatched eyes, and a TV screen]

Finding items like this on the front page of Amazon makes me less enthusiastic about holiday shopping this season.

From the product description at Amazon.com:

The Rabbids have taken over almost every channel you can imagine, from music to movies - even TV ads. Help the Rabbids destroy all our daily viewing and drive Rayman crazy. In Story Mode, play through a week of television, with each day bringing new wacky challenges of skill and insane movements in a compilation of mini-games. With up to eight players in turn-based mode and four players simultaneously, get ready for you and all your friends to go insane.

Really, they need to use the word "insane" twice in four sentences? Crazy, wacky, raving, and rabid too... which all apparently mean screaming with wide open mouths and unfocused eyes, causing havoc, chaos, destruction? "Get ready for you and all your friends to go insane." Lovely.

Sliding Board Rules

It's summer, so I'm not at liberty to blog so much--kids are out of school, and we're just hanging out, since the conference trip. And we're at the park a lot, with other families doing the same thing. I'm always surprised when supposedly smart grownups don't know or don't remember the sliding board* rule:

When you hurt someone, say you're sorry.

Even if you didn't mean to hurt them, say you're sorry.

Even if you think they're not really hurt, say you're sorry.

Even if you plan to do better next time, say you're sorry.

Even if you're busy and in a hurry, say you're sorry.

(I'm not linking to the movie in question, to Stiller's IMDb site, none of that--they don't need my help. Patricia Bauer, Beth Haller, Steve Gorelick, Lizditz at I Speak of Dreams, and others are on the case, go there. And it's summer. And I'm not in the mood for another comment thread full of people calling my kid a "turnip.")

*I've only recently heard (via the internet, natch) that "sliding board" may be a Scranton-ism--for forty years I've been saying this, while most Americans (including two of the ones I live with) apparently only say "slide." On the other hand, this blog indicates that it's "Sheboyganese." Huh!

Chess Lesson in the Park

[Photo description: In a grassy park on a sunny day, shaded by trees, a man in an orange shirt is teaching a chess lesson to a small group of children--other adults and children are standing nearby.]

All the best things happen at the accessible playground, right? Saturday at Aidan's Place in Westwood, young volunteers from Chess Tutors (a division of People Making Progress) were there to teach a free basic lesson to anyone who would listen, of any age or ability. (My son is the fluffy-haired kid on the hip of one of the tutors, Neisha, at left. I think she's Neisha Ellington, who is also a local unsigned hip-hop artist. She danced him through the songs.)

They taught some of the history of chess and rap-like chants, some of them in Spanish, to remember how to set up the board, what each piece can do, all that. It's hard to see, but they brought a large-scale chess set for demonstrating--each piece is about the same height as a seated child, but light enough for a child to lift or push into place; and a hanging banner showing the chessboard, with clear pockets for moving the pieces (on cards) around. They did a nice job with making chess interesting, using various media and models, to meet a very diverse group of kids wherever they were.

Hang in there, Alex Barton--and your classmates, too

[Image description: Composite photo of a kindergarten class--mine--captioned "Jefferson School 11 1971-1972 Kindergarten"]

Hey Alex, what happened to you should never, ever happen to any kid, anywhere--you had a right to a kindergarten experience that left you excited about school, not one that left you feeling rejected by peers and your teacher. I know--because I had a pretty awful kindergarten teacher too. It was a long, long time ago, and I'm pretty sure she's gone now; she was on the verge of retirement when I had her. She tried to switch me from lefthanded to righthanded, moving the marker from hand to hand whenever she caught me doing my thing. (It didn't work.) When she saw me reading, she snatched the book and told me my parents had "ruined" my life by letting me learn to read so young, without expert instruction. I went home and stood on my head and tried to forget how to read, figuring she must be right. (That didn't work either.)

But what I remember most was that she humiliated a little boy, made him stand in the middle of the room and take her berating in front of all of us, for the crime of.... leaving the toilet seat up. Did any of us object? We wouldn't have dared. Did any of us reach out to him afterwards? I don't remember. Do any of those sweet little boys in that photo above look like they deserved that? They didn't. They couldn't. A lot of us, including that little boy and me, we graduated high school together--and I'm sure none of us forgot that moment.

Alex, your classmates, the ones who were led to vote against you, will be haunted by this moment. They were asked to be cruel to you, by an adult they trusted. Two of them voted in support of you, by all accounts, and they're obviously great kids, but the others aren't bad kids, just five years old. The adult in this case should be removed from the classroom and disciplined and, if possible, trained out of whatever ideas got her to this place; but the kids are just kids who were put in a terrible situation.

And Alex, you're just a kid too--and you absolutely didn't deserve this. But hang in there-- with any luck, you will also meet amazing teachers and peers, and learn, and flourish. A whole lot of us are watching now, and we expect the best for you.

May 8: Douglas A. Martin (1947-2003)

May 8 was the birthday of Douglas A. Martin, a leader of the disability rights movement in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, active in Californians for Strong Access, and co-founder and director of the Westside Center for Independent Living in 1975. In 1971, he was the first grad student with a "significant disability" to win a UCLA Chancellor's Fellowship--and the next year he was UCLA's first disabled teaching assistant. He earned a PhD in urban studies at UCLA. Martin co-founded the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Disability in 1983, and was a Special Assistant to the Chancellor to coordinate ADA and 504 compliance on campus. On the national level, he lobbied tirelessly to remove work penalties from Social Security provisions. Martin died way too soon, in 2003, at age 55.

There's a really good, long, interesting oral history interview with Douglas Martin, conducted in 2002 by Sharon Bonney, available in transcript at the Bancroft Library website. (There are also audio and video clips. This might be limited access, I'm not sure.) One section that particularly caught my eye was about his three years in an Omaha hospital after contracting polio at age 5; television was new then, and a great distraction for a ward full of children in iron lungs. But the Army-McCarthy hearings were running on the only channel for much of the day! Martin remembers that planting a seed:

It just really gave me a sense of, there's a whole big wide world out there going on, and you know this political world and all this stuff. It was interesting. Didn't have that much to do with it at that point except take it all in. But later I guess, it might have been part of the reason I was interested in politics, and getting involved in Washington, and kind of having knowledge. There was so much information and detail about the system, and how it worked and how it didn't work, in those days. Some of the best and some of the worst in people in politics came out. It was fascinating, and I guess I got interested, I saw it to be a place where you could make a difference. I kind of filed it away in the back of my mind. I kind of remember that as possibly motivating, as some basis for later interest in trying to bring about social change, something more positive. (here)

I don't watch TV if I can help it when I'm in the hospital. When my kid is hospitalized, it's usually in a shared room, and there's little choice. I remember being in a quad isolation room with him during the 1998 Clinton impeachment hearings; the mother across the room was shouting at the commentators a lot. Think I also saw an Olympics opening festivities in a PICU once? I know another mother whose son was born in July 1969--so she and the other women giving birth that week were among the Americans who did not see the Neil Armstrong moon landing live.

What have you seen--or not seen--on TV during hospital stays?

Falling through the net

Brent Martin's brutal, pointless death --why don't we hear more about it?

Shane Graham disappeared about eight years ago--and apparently nobody in any position of authority noticed until recently? (There's not even a photo of Graham available to authorities, and his care needs were such that it's unlikely he's still alive but unknown somewhere.)

Bloggers are telling these stories to a wider audience when no one else will--please, keep telling the stories, keep them from falling through the net. Brent and Shane were human beings who deserve to be remembered and mourned, and nobody could deserve the treatment they got.

Paging Dr. Cliche ...

The television writers are on strike. This is national news, I realize, but it's also local chatter here--I drive past the picket line at Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach some days, it's only a mile or two from my house. I was talking to a striking writer at a small dinner gathering last night, and an assistant director who's also affected. That's LA for you. But one show's writers probably shouldn't rush back to work--if recent episodes are any indication of their mindset.

Cilla Sluga at Big Noise explained what was wrong about last week's mess on ER: an episode in which a doctor and a young teen decide the kid (who has a terminal illness) shouldn't live any longer, so they lie to the kid's mother about treatment options--and this is presented as a noble gesture on the doctor's part, not as gross malpractice. One character objects, but doesn't go farther than voicing her objection. (And as Sluga further reveals, the episode was written by an ER doctor at Children's Hospital LA--a scary twist to the story.) In this week's episode, William Peace at Bad Cripple catches another doozy: a wheelchair user is the tired "bitter cripple" stereotype, complete with lines like "anger is my baseline" (which would make a fine t-shirt, but as a summary of a disabled character, ugh). One implication of his storyline is that he can't be a good parent because, uh... because he can't clean the gutters. What?

It wasn't always like this: ER has in the past done much better by the disability community. Characters with physical, mental and sensory disabilities have been presented as rounded human beings with full civil rights, at least as well as any other 44-minute network TV drama has done (admittedly, that's a low standard to achieve). One highlight was a 1998 appearance by Neil Marcus, which was about showing disablist assumptions for the dangerous errors they are.... not about confirming those assumptions for viewers.

I hear that this is ER's last season. Maybe that's for the best.

UPDATE 12-7: William Peace notes that the 300th episode (much hyped, aired this week) was also cringe-worthy.

November 8: Happy 16th Birthday, Aaron Fotheringham!

I don’t think of it as practice, I think of it as a fun way to live my life.

YouTube sensation and extreme wheelchair sports star Aaron Fotheringham is turning 16 this Thursday--somehow. As a mom, I'm just glad to see him wearing his helmet in all his "Hardcore Sitting" videos, like this one from summer 2006, billed as his execution of the world's first wheelchair backflip:

Kids and disability culture

[Image description: A three-story dollhouse, with an elevator running through the center of the design.]

Kids want and enjoy toys that reflect their own experiences--and for more and more kids today, their experiences include disability, whether first-hand or in their family, friends, neighborhoods, and classrooms. Bint Alshamsa recently blogged about the dearth of appropriate toys, riffing from the "Trache-ing Elmo" post at Kintropy in Action.

Which was all on my mind when I read this paragraph about the Green Dollhouse Project, a design competition held by the Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education in San Mateo County, earlier this year:

During all the negotiations, the children kept gravitating to what we call the Elevator House (but which is officially called Rosaceae Sustainus) to play. So, we had an inkling of which one should win the Kids' Choice Award. The children particularly loved the hand-cranked elevator in the middle of the house. This house was open, making the spaces easily accessible, and it also included a grey water system with shell sinks.

So an open, accessible dollhouse with an elevator was a clear winner with the kids--even while the adults preferred other models. (UPDATE: The Elevator House entry was designed by a Portland OR firm, WGS.)

Now, dollhouses and other toys have had elevators for a while; but the Barbie dollhouses I've seen online have elevators for a single standing doll only--her friend Becky couldn't use them (nor any of the doors in Barbie's dream house). The old Playskool parking garage had an external elevator for cars--so that was big enough for the little wooden dolls to use in multiples, and if they had a Playskool wheelchair it would probably work fine in that elevator too--but it'll only take you to the roof of the parking garage, hmmm...

If you shop for holiday gifts for children this season, notice what's available to promote a sense of inclusion; and what reflects the everyday diversity kids know and accept already. Why shouldn't we try to find toys that support and encourage that?

Florence Kelley, 1859-1932

Today is the birthday of American reformer Florence Kelley (1859-1932). Besides being active in the suffrage, civil rights, and peace movements, and translating Engels, and living at Hull House, Kelley was Illinois' first chief factory inspector, appointed by the governor in 1893. In that role, she wrote reports of factory conditions, passionate reports that advocated child labor, minimum wage, and maximum day laws. The first report (1894) includes a section titled "Injurious Employments," where she describes disabled children exploited as workers, and child workers disabled by unsafe factory conditions (deafened by the noise, lungs and eyes damaged by the poor air quality, bones developed with curvatures from awkward positions, fingers and limbs lost to cutting machinery, hernias from heavy lifting, etc.). "The mutilation of children will continue to be a matter of daily occurrence," warns Kelley, without protective legislation.

"Hogging the swing"

It's hard to know exactly what's up in this ugly story, but I'm suspecting it's a junior version of the "people with placards hog all the good wide parking places," or even closer, "why should that woman in the wheelchair get to use the nice big stall in the ladies' room?" For readers unfamiliar with accessible playground equipment, the Jenn Swing is pictured here. It's true that accessible playgrounds are often the most popular playgrounds around --in Los Angeles, the 2-acre Shane's Inspiration space at Griffith Park is counted as the single most popular playground in the city, for example. They're often the newest, safest, most creative parks available. But where two ten-year-old boys can threaten the mother of a three-year-old for "hogging" a therapeutic swing (when other swings are empty), and the nannies nearby are on the boys' side, that's a park that I'd avoid for reasons other than inaccessibility. It's not enough to build these playgrounds--there has to be some community education to make them function as they should. Or, in the case of the West 70th St. park, a whole LOT of community education.